This November, San Franciscans will decide whether a section of the Upper Great Highway becomes an oceanside park or remains a road for cars. It’s important to note we’re only talking about the section between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard, which does not have any on or off ramps for cars.
Engardio’s initiative to close the UGH will go before a citywide electorate, where the bicycle coalition, Walk SF and other anti-vehicle regressive organizations will harp the benefits of a great oceanside park. It will be a tough for Sunset residents to get the word out with less than three months to go before votes start rolling in.
This is an important first step for the City to adapt to rising seas, but mother nature’s reclamation of that road gives us an amazing opportunity to transform our oceanfront for more people to enjoy by establishing a new, two-mile long oceanfront park from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard.
More than 100 people lined the steps in front of City Hall on July 23 to protest against permanently closing the Upper Great Highway for motor vehicle traffic between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard.
The UGH is not a park, and even if the measure passes, it will not be a park. A park, at this point, is nothing more than a pipe dream.
Recently, five supervisors, led by D4 Supervisor Joel Engardio and working in partnership with the Great Highway Park and the Bike Coalition, blindsided the taxpaying residents of D4 and D1 with a shocking ballot initiative to close down the Upper Great Highway (UGH) without any input from those who will be negatively affected by such an action.
This November, city voters may decide if the Upper Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard will be closed permanently and replaced with an oceanfront park, although opposition to the ballot measure is already forming.
By Michael Durand Last week, I posted this on Facebook and Instagram: The Sunset Beacon newspaper is working on a story for the July issue about the ballot measure to turn the […]
I enjoyed reading Julie Pitta’s commentary this morning in the Richmond Review and it felt validating as I agree with her about many things. One exception is my disagreement in the reason stated for Gordon Mar losing the election to Joel Engardio in District 4.
For the next three years, the Upper Great Highway (UGH) between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard will remain closed to cars from noon on Fridays to 6 a.m. on Mondays, despite pushback from two westside supervisors.
There can be no doubt about the result: People want car free areas in San Francisco.
Photos of costumed celebrants at the Halloween gathering on the Upper Great Highway (“Great Hauntway”), Oct. 30, 2022. Photos by The Enloe Creative.
JFK Promenade and The Great Walkway, less than three miles, are two places where pedestrians, cyclists, runners, people who are blind, people who use wheelchairs, children, and pets can feel safe and breathe in clean air.
City leadership has been missing in action across a range of issues, so not surprisingly a San Francisco Chronicle opinion poll found Mayor London Breed with less than 25% favorability rating, and the Board of Supervisors with 12%.
As Gordon Mar’s “pilot project” moves through the city agencies and onto its eventual vote and passage by the Board of Supervisors, the Upper Great Highway’s closure will be allowed to continue without an environmental study through Dec. 31, 2025, for a total of five years and eight months since its initial shutdown, despite the escalation of erosion of our sand dunes and destruction of our wildlife sanctuary from unrestricted foot traffic when vehicles are banned and beachgoers ignore designated crosswalks.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 